Chennai: The executive committee (EC) of the Actuarial Society of India (ASI) has elected Liyaquat Khan as the new president and Dr R Kannan as the vice president. The other office-bearers are R C Rao (secretary) and G L N Sarma (joint secretary).

A visibly happy Khan says: “With the elections to the ASI presidentship becoming an annual affair, I don’t give more than a year in office. Nevertheless, I will focus on my unfinished agenda.”

A year back, Khan was voted out from the very same presidentship, along with his deputy. A change in the EC composition after the recent ASI elections has enabled Khan’s re-election.

For the uninitiated, ASI’s fellow and associate members form the electoral college to elect the EC. One-third of the committee members has to retire by rotation every year. The EC, in turn, elects the office-bearers among itself. With ASI now polarised into two groups, one can expect office-bearers after every EC election.

About his immediate agenda, Khan says there are a couple of regulatory issues related to appointed actuaries in life and general insurance sectors that will be taken up with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). In addition, ASI will also hold dialogues with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on the certification of pension liabilities and accounting standards.

According to Khan, globally the accounting standards have been revised and now the accountants have a new standard called AS-19. The Indian accounting profession has not done much about AS-19, and ASI will take it up with the accounting profession because actuaries have to certify some crucial statements.

The other areas where Khan will be focusing on are improving ASI’s image in the global scenario for and in formulating the international actuarial course syllabus. “We would like to strengthen ASI in the international arena. In order to develop ASI’s size, the institute will be globalised by enlisting more members from other countries. One-third of Institute of Actuaries, UK, members is from other countries.”

An international relations committee headed by another actuary, M G Diwan, has been formed for this purpose. Khan says ASI will be proactive in framing the common syllabus for actuarial course worldwide. All the major actuary institutes in the world have agreed to frame a common syllabus for those who want to qualify as an actuary. The common syllabus — except for a couple of papers that are dependent on local laws and practices — will be ready by 2005.